Church of Christ, Scientist » Mary Baker Eddy Library Church of Christ, Scientist The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA Boston is the world headquarters for the Church of Christ, Scientist , which includes about 1700 branch churches in 80 countries. The Church of Christ, Scientist, was founded by Mary Baker Eddy and a small group of students in 1879, but the congregation lacked a permanent church home until some fifteen years later. The Original Mother Church , built in 1894, is at the heart of the Christian Science Plaza and remains today as it was when first built. The building is Romanesque in style, made of New Hampshire granite, and with many stained glass windows depicting Bible events. Designed to seat nearly 1,000 people, it was soon outgrown. The large domed Extension was completed in 1906, and provides seating for approximately 3,000. The building combines Renaissance and Byzantine architectural concepts. The organ, built by the Aeolian-Skinner Company of Boston, is one of the largest in the world; it covers eight divisions and has a total of 13,290 pipes.

The Church’s pastor is unique, for it consists of two books, the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures . Sunday services are centered around weekly Bible Lessons consisting of citations read by two readers from both books. Wednesday testimony meetings include readings that speak to a current issue or need in the community or world. Following the readings, the congregation is invited to share experiences of spiritual healing or insight gained from prayer and the study of Christian Science. At The Mother Church in Boston , Sunday services are 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (no 5:00 pm service in July and August), and Wednesday testimony meetings occur at 12:00 noon and 7:30 p.m. Christian Scientist Christian Scientist Christian Scientist: The Meaning A Christian Scientist is a member of The Church of Christ, Scientist (Also referred to as CCS). The church is also recognized by the term The Christian Science Church, which was its original title and is not associated with the Church of Scientology . The organization was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879.

Currently, the CCS is run by a five-person Board of Directors headquartered at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. The CCS has approximately 2,300 churches in 68 countries. Christian Scientist: The Foundation According to Christian Scientist literature, Mary Ann Morse Baker was born in 1821. She was a frail youngster who suffered from many illnesses. In 1844, her first husband, George Glover, died of yellow fever and left her in poverty with an infant son. Shortly thereafter, Mary was forced to give up her son to foster care. In 1853, she married her second husband, Daniel Patterson. After being miraculously healed from injuries suffered during a crippling accident, Mary claimed to have uncovered the secret of "Divine Science." She went on to teach her techniques of healing and spiritual philosophy to all who were intrigued. In 1875, after her divorce from Daniel Patterson, she moved from New Hampshire to Massachusetts and founded the Christian Science Association. It was there that she published her foundational book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

In 1877, she married her third husband, Asa Albert Eddy, and together they officially founded the CCS. Asa died in 1882, and Mary went on to establish "The Mother Church," The First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1890. Mary died in 1910. Christian Scientist: The Doctrine Christian Scientist doctrine is found principally in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (S&H). Other CCS publications include The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Journal, Herald of Christian Science, The Christian Science Sentinel, The World Monitor, and Christian Science Quarterly. Biblical Authority. Christian Science doctrine maintains that "as adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life" (S&H, p. 497). Nonetheless, Christian Science interprets the Bible in light of Mrs. Eddy's writings, particularly S&H, in which she interprets the Bible according to her metaphysical presuppositions. She questions the textual reliability of the Bible, pointing to "the manifest mistakes in the ancient versions . . .

these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages" (S&H, p. 139). Mrs. Eddy went on to apply new, spiritual meanings to common biblical terms. For example, "Jerusalem" is defined as "Mortal belief and knowledge obtained from the five corporeal senses" (S&H, p. 589). "Holy Ghost" is defined as "Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love" (S&H, p. 588). God. They use impersonal synonyms for God, which lessens God's personal nature. "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (S&H, p. 465). These are synonymous terms that "refer to one absolute God. They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and wholeness of Deity." (S&H, p. 465). Spirit & Reality. Since God's essence is spirit or mind, and only that which reflects God's nature is real, then matter does not really exist.

"Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal" (S&H, p. 468). Since matter does not exist and humanity reflects God's nature, then humanity is not really made of matter. "Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual" (S&H, p. 468). Pain, death, sin, and disease are only illusions. "The only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring beliefï¿½They are not true, because they are not of God" (S&H, p. 472). "The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health" (S&H, p. 377). Since matter, sin, disease, and death are illusions and are unreal, then people are not subject to them. "Through immortal Mind, or Truth, we can destroy all ills which proceed from mortal mind" (S&H, p. 374). Christian Scientist: What About Salvation?

A Christian Scientist believes that sin and death are false notions (illusions). Therefore, salvation comes through understanding and overcoming these false beliefs and recognizing that humans are divine spirit and mind. "We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter" (S&H, p. 497). However, salvation is not the result of some special wisdom set forth in the S&H. The Bible tells us that salvation is received only by acknowledging and repenting of our sin (real, not illusion), and putting our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Learn More Now! WHAT DO YOU THINK? - We have all sinned and deserve God's judgment. God , the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus , the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried , and rose from the dead according to the Bible .

If you truly believe and trust this in your heart, receiving Jesus alone as your Savior , declaring, " Jesus is Lord ," you will be saved from judgment and spend eternity with God in heaven. What is your response? Christian Science History | CARM Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry by Matt Slick Christian Science was founded by a woman named Mary Baker Eddy. She was born Mary Ann Morse Baker in New Hampshire in 1821. (She died in 1910). She was the daughter of a New Hampshire Congregationalist church member. As a child, she was frequently ill and highly emotional. She is said to have been "domineering, quarrelsome, and extremely self centered." 1 At age 22, she married George Glover. He died seven months later. She then married Dr. Daniel Patterson, but that marriage failed in divorce. In 1862, while suffering from an illness, she visited a man named Phineas Quimby. He taught a system of healing dealing with the mind. He taught that the mind had the power to heal the body. He exerted a significant influence on her thinking regarding spiritual matters.

In 1866, she fell and was seriously injured; and she was not expected to recover. She apparently read Matt. 9:2 ("And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee") and experienced a miraculous cure. It was this experience that convinced her of the truth of Christian Science. She first published "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in 1875 when she was 54. She claimed it was the final revelation of God to mankind and asserted that her work was inspired of God. The word "Key" in the title of her book is in reference to her being the woman of Revelation 12--that she is the key to unlocking the Bible which she called a dark book. She claimed the Bible had many mistakes, and that her writings provided the "Key" spoken of in Rev. 3:7. She married Asa Eddy in 1877.

In 1879, four years after the first publication of Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy and some of her students voted organized the church of Christ (Scientist) in Boston Massachusetts. Of course, like all cults, it claimed to be the restoration of the original New Testament Church. In 1881 she opened a metaphysical college and charged $300 for 12 healing lessons. The Church was reorganized in 1892, and the Church Manual was first issued in 1895 which provided the structure for church government and missions. She died in 1910--a millionaire. This article is also available in: Español 1. Meyer, F.E., The Religious Bodies of America, Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1961, p. 532. Bio of Christian Science Founder Mary Baker Eddy Christianity Expert By Jack Zavada Mary Baker Eddy overcame the obstacles of her time to found Christian Science , a religion which is practiced throughout the world today. In an era when women were treated as second class citizens, Mary Baker Eddy broke through social and financial barriers, never retreating from her convictions and her faith in the Bible.

Mary Baker Eddy’s Influences Mary Baker Eddy was born in 1821, the youngest of six children. Her parents, Mark and Abigail Baker, farmed in Bow, New Hampshire. Throughout her childhood, Mary often missed school because of illness. As an adolescent, she refuted the Calvinist doctrine of predestination taught in their Congregational home, seeking guidance from the Bible. She married George Washington Glover, a building contractor, in December 1843. He died seven months later. That fall, Mary gave birth to their son, George, and moved back to her parents’ home. Her mother, Abigail Baker, died in 1849. Still suffering from frequent illness and without her mother’s help, Mary gave young George up for adoption by the family’s former nurse and the nurse’s husband. Mary Baker Glover married an itinerant dentist named Daniel Patterson in 1853. She divorced him in 1873 on grounds of desertion, after he had walked out on her many years earlier. All the while, she had no relief from illness. In 1862, she turned to Phineas Quimby , a famous healer in Portland, Maine.

Initially she got better, under Quimby’s hypnotherapy and acupressure treatments. Suffering a relapse, she went back. She believed Phineas Quimby had found the key to Jesus’ healing methods, but after talking with the man for hours, she decided that Quimby’s success lay chiefly in his charismatic personality. Then in the winter of 1866, Mary Patterson fell on an icy sidewalk and severely injured her spine. Bedridden, she turned to her Bible, and while reading an account of Jesus healing a paralytic, she said she experienced a miraculous healing. She later claimed that was when she discovered Christian Science . Discovering Christian Science Over the next nine years, Mary Patterson immersed herself in the Bible. She also taught, healed, and wrote during that time. In 1875 she published her definitive text, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Two years later, during the course of her teaching ministry, she married one of her students, Asa Gilbert Eddy. Mary Baker Eddy’s repeated attempts to get established churches to accept her concepts of healing met only with rejection.

Finally, in 1879, frustrated and disappointed, she formed her own church in Boston, Massachusetts: the Church of Christ, Scientist. To formalize instruction, Mary Baker Eddy founded Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1881. The next year, her husband Asa died. By 1889, she closed the college to embark on a major revision of Science and Health. An elaborate building housing the Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, was dedicated in Boston in 1894. Mary Baker Eddy's Religious Legacy Above all, Mary Baker Eddy was a prolific writer. In addition to Science and Health, she also published a 100-page Church Manual, which is used to this day as a guide in establishing and operating Christian Science churches. She wrote countless tracts, essays, and pamphlets, which are released through the Christian Science Publishing Company. The most famous of her publications, The Christian Science Monitor, first came out when Eddy was 87 years old. Since that time, the newspaper has collected seven Pulitzer Prizes . Mary Baker Eddy died December 3, 1910 and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Today, the religion she founded has more than 1,700 churches and branches in 80 countries. The Origin and Current Status of Christian Science The Origin and Current Status of Christian Science Stephen Barrett, M.D. In about 1850, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby of Maine used Anton Mesmer’s ideas of animal magnetism to develop his own healing approach. Quimby would place his hands on a sick patient’s head and abdomen and encourage supposed magnetic healing forces to flow through them. He claimed that diagnosis and cure resulted from the individual’s faith in him. He professed that conventional medicine was useless, that disease itself was “error,” and that only health was “truth.” In 1862, Quimby treated Mary Baker Glover for a spinal problem that had failed to respond to orthodox medical care. The water massage and hypnotism that he used reportedly had a positive effect. On awakening from her trance Glover found herself cured. She concluded, however, that her cure was not due to Quimby but to “truth in Christ.” In 1875 she published Science and Health, which described her theories about religion based on the Bible and some of Quimby’s ideas.

She said that God was the author and that she was only the writer. In 1877 she married for the third time, becoming Mary Baker Eddy, and named her new philosophy Christian Science. The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879. Mary Baker Eddy represented herself as the supreme healer and as infallible as Christ. She claimed to be able to perform miracles and said she had healed many people with crippling disabilities. She demanded absolute obedience to her system as well as to her person. She could not bear to be contradicted or found wrong. In her determination to justify herself on all counts, she frequently twisted evidence and facts to her purposes. Her writings contain many contradictions [1]. Faulty Beliefs and Practices Christian Science contends that illness is an illusion caused by faulty beliefs, and that prayer heals by replacing bad thoughts with good ones. Christian Science practitioners work by trying to argue the sick thoughts out of the patient’s mind. Consultations can take place in person, by telephone, or even by mail. Individuals may also be able to attain correct beliefs by themselves through prayer or concentration.

In Science and Health [2], Eddy reported that her experiments with homeopathy had made her "skeptical as to material curative methods." After noting that extreme homeopathic dilutions removed all trace of the original active ingredient, she concluded: Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is the next stately step beyond homeopathy. . . . Christian Science exterminates the drug, and rests on the Mind alone as the curative Principle, acknowledging that the divine Mind has all power. Homeopathy mentalizes a drug with such repetition of thought-attenuations, that the drug becomes more like the human mind than the substratum of this so-called mind, which we call matter; and the drug's power of action is proportionately increased. A pamphlet of the Christian Science Publishing Society states that “every student of Christian Science has the God-given ability to heal the sick.” To become a practitioner, an individual takes 2 weeks of “primary class instruction” from a qualified teacher. The course is based on questions and answers from Science and Health. When training is completed, “C.S.” may be placed after the person’s name.

After 3 years of full-time practice, a practitioner may apply for the 6-day “normal class.” Completion merits the degree of Bachelor of Christian Science (C.S.B.) and certifies the person as a teacher who may give primary instruction to 30 pupils a year. Devout Christian Scientists do not use medications and usually eschew medical aid. They are opposed to vaccination, immunization, and quarantine for contagious diseases, although official church policy advises members to comply with state laws. A physician or midwife may be used during childbirth. A physician may also be used to set a broken bone if no medication is administered. The weekly magazine Christian Science Sentinel publishes several “testimonies” in each issue. To be considered for publication, an account must merely be “verified” by three individuals who “can vouch for the integrity of the testifier or know of the healing.” Believers have claimed that prayer has produced recovery from anemia, arthritis, blood poisoning, corns, deafness, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, visual difficulties, and various injuries. Most of these accounts contain little detail, and many of the diagnoses were made without medical consultation.

The church also publishes The Christian Science Monitor, a daily newspaper. Christian Scientists may legally practice in all states. Medicare and some insurance companies cover care given by Christian Science practitioners, and their services are also tax-deductible as a medical expense for federal income-tax purposes. It is not known how many members continue to fully accept Mary Baker Eddy’s premise that disease is an illusion, or how many continue to visit practitioners instead of physicians. Eyeglasses, hearing aids, and dental treatment are used by some members who still maintain that illness is the consequence of mental error. Consequences of Medical Neglect Rita Swan, Ph.D., whose 16-month-old son Matthew died of meningitis in 1977 under the care of two Christian Science practitioners [3], quickly collected allegations of 75 deaths and 95 serious injuries to children of Christian Scientists [4]. Angered by her experience, she formed Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, Inc. (CHILD) to work for legal reforms that could protect children from inappropriate treatment by faith healers [5]. She also sued the church but lost the case.

During the proceedings, church officials testified that the church had no training, workshops, or meetings for practitioners that included any discussion on how to evaluate the seriousness of a child’s condition [6]. A 1993 lawsuit following the death of an 11-year-old boy resulted in a $1.5 million judgment against the boy’s mother and stepfather and two Christian Science practitioners. Press reports indicate that the boy died after passing into diabetic coma while the mother prayed at his bedside and the practitioner took notes about his condition [6]. During an appearance on the “Donahue” show the Swans were asked why Matthew’s illness had not been reported to state health authorities as required by law in Michigan. They replied that no one had made the diagnosis. Devout believers, they did not want to face possible abandonment by the church if they sought a medical opinion. The broadcast triggered many responses, including this one from 43-year-old Paul Michener of Waynesville, Ohio: At age nine, my left leg was burned in a gasoline fire (1st to 3rd degree). Although the area burned was not too large, from the ankle to just above the knee, it became a lengthy trauma. . . .

I was fifteen years old before the injury had grown closed with scar tissue. In the meantime, the knee became stiff and the pain was beyond description. I was bedridden for about two years and walked on crutches for another two and a half years. Today I walk with a four-inch limp, a curved spine, and some recurring back and hip pain. . . . I have undergone three surgical operations in the last four years trying to patch up the damage done by this insidious philosophy. I find it neither Christian nor a science. . . . Today when I look at our nine-year-old daughter, I ask how could any “loving” and “religious” parent put his child through such an experience. Two studies suggest that Christian Scientists who rarely consult doctors pay a high price for avoiding medical care. The first study, study published in 1989, compared alumni records from Principia College, a Christian Science school in Elsah, Illinois, with records from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

Even though Christian Science tenets forbid the use of alcohol and tobacco, the death rates among those who had graduated from Principia between 1934 and 1948 were higher than those of their University of Kansas counterparts (26.2% vs. 20.9% in men, and 11.3% vs. 9.9% in women). [7] The second study compared Christian Scientists and Seventh-day Adventists (who also are admonished to abstain from cigarettes and alcohol but use scientifically oriented medical care) and found even greater differences in the death rates [8]. Undeserved Political Privilege In August 1996, a federal court judge ruled that Medicare and Medicaid payments for Christian Science nursing violate the Constitutional principle of church-state separation. The ruling came in response to a suit by CHILD and two individuals. At that time, about 500 Christian Science nurses practiced in the United States. (Today, only 20 are listed in the church's online directory.) When the suit was filed, CHILD noted in a news release that these nurses are neither licensed nor trained in science-based nursing.

The release also stated: Christian Science nurses cannot take a pulse, use a fever thermometer, give an enema or even a backrub. They have no training in recognizing contagious diseases. They have been retained to attend sick children and have sat taking notes as the children suffered and died, but have not called for medical care nor recommended that parents obtain it. The notes of these . . . nurses indicate that they observed children having “heavy convulsions,” vomiting repeatedly, and urinating uncontrollably. They have seen the children moaning in pain and too weak to get out of bed. They have seen their eyes roll upward and fix in a glassy stare. One Christian Science nurse force-fed a toddler as he was dying of a bowel obstruction. Although the court ruled in CHILD’s favor, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) rescued the Church by engineering passage of a law providing for Medicare payment for “religious non-medical health care.” CHILD sued under the new law but was not successful. Membership Declining The Christian Science Church is declining rapidly. Between 1971 and 2009 the number of U.S.

practitioners and teachers listed in the Christian Science Journal fell from about 5,000 to about 1,160 and the number of churches fell from about 1,800 to about 900 [9]. In November 2005, Rita Swan noted: The Christian Science Monitor had over 175,000 subscribers in 1988. Today it has 53,203 subscribers worldwide, but its circulation has fallen by more than 10% in the past six months. Even more startling, the Christian Science Board of Directors recently told a regional membership gathering that only 15,000 of those subscribers are members of the Christian Science church. (Thousands of the subscribers are libraries.) The Manual of the Mother Church, which provides the rules for church members, requires all members to subscribe to all church periodicals if they can afford it. Many of those subscriptions are going to homes with only one church member (a widow, a single person, or a person who married outside the faith). It therefore seems highly likely that the Christian Science church today has no more than 30,000 members.

Around the time of World War II, when the church had to report its membership to the government in order to be allowed to have military chaplains, it reported having 268,915 members in 1936 [10]. In March 2016, Swan sent me this update: The Christian Science church will not disclose how many members it has, but one can estimate from U.S. Postal Service data. Because of the class of postage used, the USPS requires the church to report how many copies of their Christian Science Sentinel they mail worldwide. The figures for the past 20 years are: 1996 15,818 15,362 At least 1,000 of those copies are going to church "reading rooms" rather than private homes. In Article VIII, Section 14, of the Manual, the church's governing instrument, founder Mary Baker Eddy decreed: "It shall be the privilege and duty of every member, who can afford it, to subscribe for the periodicals which are the organs of this Church. . .

." Some homes would have two Christian Science church members in them, and perhaps some members believe they are too poor to pay for the magazine, but those would be few and far between because the theology encourages people to believe in "abundance." It is also possible that some of the drop is the result of switching from the print to the online version. But I believe it is safe to estimate that the Christian Science Church has fewer than 40,000 members in the entire world. The Christian Science Church's decline is not surprising because its doctrines have little appeal to modern youth. For Additional Information God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church (Caroline Fraser) References Kinsolving L, Barrett S. The miracle merchants. In Barrett S, Jarvis WT, editors. The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America. Amherst, N.Y., Prometheus Books, 1993. Eddy MB. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp 152-157. Reprinted by First Church of Christ Scientists, Boston, 1994. Mathew Swan . Quackwatch Web site, June 18, 1998.

Swan R. Faith healing, Christian Science, and the medical care of children. New England Journal of Medicine 309:1639–1641, 1983. Swan R, Swan D. Civil suits against Christian Science providers; no standards established. CHILD Newsletter, No 1, 1991. Christian Scientists challenged. Physicians Financial News 14(3):23, 1996. Christian Science Bakersfield, Ca Christian Science Bakersfield, Ca We are a branch of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts. "...a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." Mary Baker Eddy Founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879, the Christian Science Church was the first religious denomination to be established by an American woman. Since then, branches of The Mother Church, in Boston, Massachusetts have spread around the globe to over 75 countries. Mrs. Eddy has been recognized as one of 75 "Women Whose Words Have Changed the World" by the Women's National Book Association.

She established the Church of Christ, Scientist, to make this Science available to all mankind, which restores primitive Christianity's vital element of healing. Christian Science first came to the Bakersfield area in 1894 through the healing of a local woman, Mrs. Laura Owens. Mrs. Owens was healed of a diagnosed fatal illness when she read the Christian Science textbook written by Mrs. Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, offered by a relative. Mrs. Owens and ten other students of Christian Science gathered in the Masonic Temple on September 20, 1904 to formally organize as The Christian Science Society of Bakersfield, California. The State of California charter of First Church of Christ, Scientist was signed on February 3, 1910. A rapidly growing attendance necessitated many changes in the church location until December of 1930 when the present site at 18th & C Streets was purchased and construction of the large edifice and Sunday school began. A Christian Science Reading Room was added in the mid-1980's. Home - First Church of Christ, Scientist, Sanibel-Captiva Welcome to our Church.

We are located on Sanibel Island at 2950 West Gulf Drive about one mile west of the Tarpon Bay/West Gulf Drive intersection. We’d love to meet you. Christian Science is a religion based upon the teachings and healings of Christ Jesus. It draws its authority from the Bible and its complete teachings are set forth in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. A distinctive part of this Science is the healing of physical disease as well as sin by spiritual means through an understanding of God. Our church is a branch of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts that was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879 “to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing” (from the Church Manual). Our church includes a Reading Room which is located in the rear of our building. Here you will find a quiet place to study and pray. You can also purchase copies of the Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, other writings of Mary Baker Eddy as well as other periodicals and books pertaining to Christian Science. Please stop by and say hello.

Weekly Schedule: Mary Baker Eddy | Common Sense Mary Baker Eddy Crazy Christianity: Christian Science In an attempt to highlight the many, many different branches that have grown from the tree of Christianity by way of human interpretation, I have decided to start a little mini series spotlighting some of the most interesting ones. I wanted to start with Christian Science since it happens to be one of the most interesting I have come across in quite a while. What it’s all about: The Christian Science religion was founded in 1879 by a woman named Mary Baker Eddy. She was sickly most of her life and after suffering a fall that inflicted internal injuries in 1875 she turned to the Bible for answers about her healing. It is at that time she claimed to have come to a working understanding of pain, sickness and injury through reading the scriptures which lead to her speedy 3-day recovery. She wrote a book describing her experiences and revelations, started preaching and putting to practice her new-found healing methodologies and the church was built 4 years later. The basic premise of Christian Science is that the immortal, material world is an illusion in which we fall victim to suffering and illness.

Matter is not real; only the spiritual world is real and can be accessed through prayer. They believe that “sickness and death are illusions caused by mistaken beliefs, and that the sick should be treated by a special form of prayer intended to correct those beliefs, rather than by medicine.” ( Source ) These beliefs, as you can imagine, are incredibly controversial and potentially very dangerous. In fact, “between the 1880s and 1990s the avoidance of medical care and vaccination led to the deaths of a number of adherents and their children; several parents and others were prosecuted for manslaughter or neglect, and in a few cases convicted.” ( Source ) The modern Christian Science church takes a different stance on healthcare today in which they do not advocate for the complete non-use of medical treatment, but instead advises its followers to pray about what option they should take and make a decision that best fits their family’s needs (which almost always leads to a decision not to utilize modern medicinal treatment). Christian Science churches do not have pastors or reverends as typical Christian churches do. Actually, Mary Baker Eddy ordained the Bible and her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, as the pastor of the church.

There is one main church located in Boston (called the Mother Church since it was the first location) and many branches throughout the world. Each week, every church studies the exact same lesson from the Bible. They meet on Wednesdays to discuss with each other how the lesson has affected their lives and to share stories about how the lesson has healed them in some way. Then, they meet on Sundays for a church service in which that particular lesson is read aloud; there is no personal sermon given by any leader. Ultimately, the followers of this religion believe that Jesus was able to heal people and even bring them back to life because of his closeness with and un-wavering trust in God. They believe that if they pray and develop a closeness with God as well, that they will then be able to heal themselves and others. While they know that they will never achieve the kind of closeness Jesus had to God, they believe that they can certainly approach it. Why it’s harmful to society: This religion requires complete trust in god to heal and prevent all illnesses which can and have lead to more than a few very avoidable deaths and/or complications.

Many children suffer the consequences of not being vaccinated or actively treated for their illnesses in the appropriate ways causing their otherwise well-meaning parents to be accused of (and rightfully so) neglect. This is one of those religions in which someone had an idea about the Bible and wrote their own supplementary text with the intention that they be read together. These authors, while most vehemently deny any parallels or comparisons between themselves and god, almost always believe that their writing is just as important as that of the Bible. I find it strange that someone with the capacity to believe the Bible to be a divine text with all of the answers one will ever need in it could also believe that some random person has the ability to write a guidebook or a partner book that describes the correct interpretation and how you should live your life accordingly. A lot can be said for the healing powers of the mind. Many studies are being published about the affects one’s mindset can have on that person’s ability to heal and many cancer patients can attest to these seemingly miraculous cures.

We already know that things like pain can be attributed almost entirely to that particular person’s idea of it which explains why some people enjoy hanging from the ceiling with hooks stuck through the skin on their backs and others can be completely crippled by a stubbed toe. However, to attribute these natural brain phenomenons to a divine deity is incredibly ignorant and dangerous. For minor illnesses and injuries I believe it is perfectly acceptable to resort to any type of treatment one feels is best for either themselves or their family, whether natural, homeopathic, divine, medicinal, etc. However, for life-threatening illnesses and injuries I believe, especially in the case of children who are unable to make medical decisions on their own, the power of healing through one’s mind (or prayer as the Christian Scientist will believe) should be used in conjunction with any and all modern remedies and solutions available; anything less is just plain irresponsible. from the pale and downtrodden. And the words they say which we won't understand, "Don't accept that what's happening is just a case of others' suffering or you'll find that you're joining in the turning away." It's a sin that somehow light is changing to shadow and casting it's shroud over all we have known.

Unaware how the ranks have grown, driven on by a heart of stone. We could find that we're all alone in the dream of the proud. On the wings of the night as the daytime is stirring. Where the speechless unite Using words you will find are strange and mesmerised as they light the flame. Feel the new wind of change on the wings of the night. No more turning away from the weak and the weary. No more turning away Just a world that we all must share. It's not enough just to stand and stare. Is it only a dream that there'll be no more turning away? The Life of Mary Baker Eddy > The life of Mary Baker Eddy The life of Mary Baker Eddy Youth Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) was an influential American author, teacher, and religious leader, noted for her groundbreaking ideas about spirituality and health, which she named Christian Science. She articulated those ideas in her major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , first published in 1875. Four years later she founded the Church of Christ, Scientist , which today has branch churches and societies around the world.

In 1908 she launched The Christian Science Monitor , a leading international newspaper, the recipient, to date, of seven Pulitzer Prizes. Born on a farm in Bow, New Hampshire, she was the youngest of Mark and Abigail Baker’s six children. Her formal education was interrupted by periods of sickness, but when not in school she read and studied extensively at home, writing prose and poetry from an early age. Her parents sought help from physicians for her ailments, but the treatments brought only temporary relief. Raised in a deeply religious Congregational home, she rebelled against the Calvinist doctrine of predestination at an early age, and regularly turned to the Bible and prayer for hope and inspiration. Adulthood In December 1843, Mary Baker married a promising young building contractor, George Washington Glover, moving with him to the Carolinas. He died the following June, three months before the birth of their son, George. She found shelter and support for herself and the boy back in her parents’ New Hampshire home until her mother’s death in late 1849.

In 1850, still suffering from recurring bouts of illness and no longer having her mother’s help, she found she had no choice but to place George in the care of the family’s former nurse and her husband. In 1853, Mary Baker Glover married Daniel Patterson, an itinerant dentist who proved to be unreliable and unfaithful. He abandoned her in 1866, and, after years of living apart, she divorced him in 1873 on grounds of desertion. Struggling with chronic illness compounded by personal loss, Mary Patterson was preoccupied with questions of health. Like many in her day, she avoided the harsh treatments of conventional nineteenth-century medicine and its dangerous side effects. She sought relief in various alternative treatments of the day, from diets to hydropathy (water cure). During Patterson’s long absences, she studied homeopathy in depth and became intrigued by its emphasis on diluting drugs to the point where they all but disappear from the remedy. At one point, she experimented with unmedicated pellets (now known as placebos) and concluded that a patient’s belief plays a powerful role in the healing process.

While investigating such new cures, she continued to seek comfort and insights in the Bible, still drawn by the healing record contained in its pages. In 1862, as the Civil War raged, Mary Patterson sought help from Phineas Quimby, a popular healer in Portland, Maine. Her health initially improved radically under his treatment, which included a combination of mental suggestion and what might now be called therapeutic touch, but she soon suffered a relapse. She returned to Quimby not only for treatment but also to learn more about his approach. Thinking that he had rediscovered a divine healing method, she spent hours discussing and exchanging ideas with him. In time, she concluded that Quimby’s technique depended largely on his vigorous personality and his training in hypnosis rather than on some divine principle. Major accomplishments A turning point occurred in 1866 when a severe fall on an icy sidewalk left her in bed in critical condition. Quimby had died just one month earlier so she could not turn to him for help. She asked for her Bible and, while reading an account of healing, found herself suddenly well. Eventually, she referred to this as the moment she discovered Christian Science.

Mary Patterson could not explain to others what had happened, but she knew it was the result of what she had read in the Bible. Her conviction grew in the coming weeks and months as setbacks were met with even stronger proofs of spiritual healing. This led to nine years of intensive scriptural study, healing activity, and teaching, culminating in the publication of Science and Health in 1875. In this book she marked out what she understood to be the “science” behind this healing method. As she saw it, the healing works of Jesus were divinely natural, and repeatable. Over the years Mary Baker Eddy taught her system of healing to hundreds of women and men who in turn established successful healing practices across the United States and abroad. In 1877 she married one of her students, Asa Gilbert Eddy, who gave her unflinching support and the name by which she became best known. He died in 1882. Disappointed that existing Christian churches would not embrace her discovery, Eddy started her own.

In 1879 she secured a charter for the Church of Christ, Scientist, established “to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.” Two years later, she founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, where she taught her classes until 1889, when she closed the institution to focus on a major revision of Science and Health. As teacher, author, and preacher, Mary Baker Eddy was leader of the burgeoning Christian Science movement. In 1888, a reading room for her writings and other publications opened in Boston. In 1894, Boston-area Christian Scientists moved into their own first church edifice (The Mother Church), built under Eddy’s direction. In 1895 she published a church manual, establishing guidelines that are followed to this day. It is in this slim volume that she made provisions for a lay ministry in Christian Science churches around the world, with locally elected readers who read a weekly “Bible Lesson-Sermon” of passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Eddy went on to found The Christian Science Publishing Society in 1898, which became the publishing home for numerous publications launched by her and her followers. It is of note that Mary Baker Eddy made her discovery of Christian Science mid-way through her long life, at a time when women could not vote and were generally barred from pulpits, seminaries, and the medical profession. She continued her work until her last days. It was at age 87, responding to “yellow” journalism (the tabloid news of her day), that she started The Christian Science Monitor, designed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” Mary Baker Eddy passed away on December 3, 1910. She was buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By that time, her church was growing nationally and internationally, and her best-selling book was in the process of being translated for the first time (into German). Hundreds of tributes appeared in newspapers around the world, including The Boston Globe, which wrote, “She did a wonderful—an extraordinary work in the world and there is no doubt that she was a powerful influence for good.” Plan a visit and learn more about Mary Baker Eddy.

Join our email list Christian Science Beliefs Christian Science Beliefs Summary of Christian Science Beliefs A summary of Christian Science beliefs begins with a brief history. The Church of Christ, Scientist (CCS), also known by its original name, The Christian Science Church, was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879. Eddy claimed to have discovered the secret of "Divine Science" after being miraculously healed from a crippling accident. She began teaching her healing techniques and spiritual philosophy to anyone who was interested during the late 1860's, publishing her foundational book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (S&H), in 1875. Christian Science Beliefs ï¿½ The Theology Christian Science uses the Bible, but interprets it in light of Eddy's metaphysical writings, particularly S&H. The CCS uses impersonal synonyms for God and diminishes His personal nature as revealed in the Bible. Since God's essence is spirit or mind, and only that which reflects His nature is real, then matter does not really exist. Since matter doesn't exist and humanity reflects God's nature, then humanity isn't really made of matter. Therefore, man is not material; he is spiritual.

Based on CCS doctrine, sin, death, disease, and pain are not real, but only illusions. Therefore, salvation involves understanding and overcoming these false beliefs and realizing that we are divine spirit and mind.

Question: What was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879?
Answer: CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS